They Keep Asking - Are You Ready?... ARE THEY?

ponder

Ah yes, the big switch-over on June 12th. Our local station WGAL has been running the usual repetitive, nauseating stream of spots warning that you must be ready for the new signal and high def television.

I have a comical feeling the station itself has not. Sure, there "conveying" the high def feeds they get from NBC but in their own studio with local news.... Nothing. No new cameras or high def "sourcing". I travel a lot and see a lot of local stations have switched over with their local news but many have not.

DexterMorgan

the switch isn't from SD to HD, it's from analog to digital. No one is required to have an HD set, and stations are not required to broadcast in HD, but rather digitally.

However I will say that it is annoying to see a crisp clean news anchor cut to a field report that looks like it was shot using an cellphone. I guess they need time and money to replace the equipment. Effects of bad economy maybe?

zoinks

I think it is more of a money hungry, profit milking, CEO bonus type thing for the broadcasting parent companies.

Munkey

Are you ready? I ask this because you obviously do not understand what the switchover is yourself. It is about analog to digital transmissions. Has nothing to do with HD. You're not helping the situation by posting messages like this.

ponder

OK, let me rephrase it. Congratulations on the switchover to digital CARRIER, now if the local stations could explore the digital signals FULL capability and get NEW camera and engineering to go along with it instead of quietly acting like the consumer doesn't know that media can be SOURCED in high def, a tired old subject.

You sound like a frustrated engineer at a station that is "cheaping out" on getting new equipment. On a side note, you know there is de-caffeinated brands of coffee on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing these days! You should try one of them....

ponder

The station I mentioned doesn't even have HD engineering in the studio yet! The "anchor desk" is still SD! I understand HD vs. SD has nothing to do with the signal changeover and the station itself can keep droning on with old standard definition equipment but that seems like a big waste of its capabilities, especially when a lot of consumers have HD on their receiving side of the signal..... They spent the money to get rid of the SD - why can't the local station? Yep, maybe it is the economy.

If you just went out and got the converter box, well, I guess just party on with the old Philco......

Scottnot

That's not exactly correct.
If you are refering to the money that "they spent" to impliment the analog/digital switchover, the primary reason was bandwidth; yes, HD was part of the equation, but certainly not THE reason.
And it certainly was not done to "get rid" of SD.

Could be the economy of course.

Munkey

Actually, I couldn't care less about whether the local news broadcast is ever in high def or not. I care more about the news stories they are reporting that may have an effect on me than whether they look good doing it.

I bet the majority of people will agree with me.

ponder

I was referring to the base consumer, not the broadcaster. I specifically bought consumer electronics to "get rid of SD", and talking with my peers, they agree, I'm NOT out of line - we seek out HD programming/movies in HD. I completely understand there is no "presto" button to automatically change everything over to clear crisp HD and take advantage of the new signal but the phrase "The switchover to DTV signal does not require broadcasters to switch to HD production" is going to be more and more, a feeble excuse.

In any case, I think traditional TV is in trouble, the sheer barrage of commercials has the screen more and more, idle and dark - it's just not worth it - especially in these times of broadband and internet. If the local broadcaster doesn't want to take advantage of the signal, well, once again my line; "They Keep Asking - Are You Ready?.... ARE THEY?"

Scottnot

You certainly don't have to watch any SD progams if you don't want to.

I don't see anything "feeble" about it.
"Analog to digital switchover"/"SD vs HD" . . . . Apples/Oranges
Sounds like your trying to impose your desires on the world around you.

glennb1

Switchover ??

Anna-log to digi-something....

What are you people talking about ?

Does this also effect AM & FM radio ?

ponder

Ummm.... Yeah.

Last I looked I was posting in highdefforum.com and rumbling around in the "High Def lounge", not the "We switched over to DTV signal but we don't have to do anything else" forum.

This post IS in the High Def Lounge right? We're talking about High Def issues right? I'm not an English Major but last I knew I could read the title of the forum.

Like you said, Apples and Oranges...... If you love NTSC, create the ntscforum.com, kind of strange, but to each his/her own.

Last post, snark away.

rbinck

What I find humorous is the CBS station here in Houston is running a crawl saying how you may need a VHF antenna to receive their signal and if you are having problems receiving their signal call their number. That's sort of like the braille on the drive through ATM machines to me. I mean, if people can't get their signal, they can't read the damn crawl!

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glennb1

The braille on any ATMs kills me.

The ATM doesn't say what it wants you to do next, I've never been to one that does anyways.

A lot of them are touch screens now.

The money doesn't have doesn't braille writing on it.

The printout receipt you get out of the machine doesn't have braille on it.

Loves2Watch

I would be concerned about the person requiring braille driving up to the ATM...

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